U.S. Vs. China Social Media Comparison

What social media sites do you use?

Face

book

Twitter

YouTube

MyS

pace

BlogKaix

in

Renren

Xiaonei

Douban

Delicious

Touou0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

U.S.China

How long have you been a social media user?

1 yr or less 2-4 yrs 5-7 yrs 8+ yrs0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

U.S. China

What are your daily activities on social media sites?

U.S.

Talk to friendsPicturesCheck updatesE-mailEvents

What are your daily activities on social media sites?

China

BloggingTweetingEntertainingGamingVideo watchingSocial networkingCheck updatesTalk to friendsBookmarking

Do you have privacy settings?

• U.S. :– All 12 respondents said that they have privacy

settings. You have to be their friend to access any part of their profile.

• China:– 10 respondents said that they have privacy settings.– 1 respondent said no, because it was a blog– 1 respondent left answer blank for whatever reason

What kind of pictures do you post?

U.S.

Me + FriendsGreek EventsMe + FamilySporting eventsMisc. eventsPet

What kind of pictures do you post?

Funny pictures

Me Travel pictures

Me + Friends Me + Family0

1

2

3

4

5

6

China

China

Do you look at other people’s posted pictures?

• U.S. : – All respondents said yes.

• China:– No one responded to that question.

What is your current profile picture?

What is your current profile picture?

What is your current profile picture?

• China:– Many respondents said a cartoon picture. Many of

them don’t post pictures of themselves as their display for others to see.

Do you delete pictures that people tagged of you?

• U.S. :– All respondents said that they have. Most said

they will delete it if they look unflattering in the picture, or if they are doing something they don’t want to be associated with.

• China:– Most all respondents said yes. A few said no. The

ones that had was because they didn’t want the general public to be able to see the pictures.

How many hours a day are you on social media sites?

1 hr or less 2-4 hrs 5-7 hrs 8+0

2

4

6

8

10

12

U.S.China

Do you know the majority of the people on your sites?

• In both U.S. and China most respondents said yes, they knew everyone. However, one person in China said he knew only about ½ of the people on his site.

Does your profile accurately reflect who you are?

• Again, most people in both China and U.S. said that it accurately reflected who they are, but one person from China said that their site made them look worse than they actually are.

If the social media sites has applications, which ones do you use?

• U.S. :– Respondents don’t really use the applications.

• China:– Most used at least one. Main applications were for

playing games online.

Have you ever tagged something as inappropriate?

• U.S. :– Two people said that they had. – The others said no.

• China:– Almost all respondents had tagged something as

inappropriate.

Analysis

• While people in the U.S. mainly use social media to communicate with friends and share pictures online, people in China use it more for a personal diary to share their thoughts. Many of them post funny pictures, and cartoon pictures.

• Both places use social media around the same amount of time each day.